Europe's home-grown space shuttle gears up for launch

EUROPE'S home-grown space shuttle is taking shape. If the maiden flight of the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV, pictured) in October goes to plan, it will be the first time in 16 years that the European Space Agency (ESA) has returned a craft to Earth.

Atmospheric re-entry is key for any astronaut trip or bringing rock samples back from other worlds. Unlike the US, Chinese and Russian space agencies, which are experienced at re-entry, ESA's only success was in 1998, when it brought back a capsule.

The IXV, now being built in Turin, Italy, looks like the nose of a NASA space shuttle. It combines the simplicity of a capsule, where there is no control over a landing site once descent begins, with some manoeuvrability, thanks to its rear flaps. Purely a test craft, it will land in water, but the idea is for it to form the basis of a larger space plane that lands on the ground. At first it will be uncrewed and used to maintain satellites in orbit, but it could one day carry astronauts.

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